Pencil Tool Properties

Pencil Properties

The following properties affect the pencil's size, smoothing, shape and other properties for the drawing style of your pencil. Those properties can be saved into pencil presets for later use.

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Tool Name

Description

Preview Area

The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke your drawing tool will make.

Pencil Properties Dialog

The arrow button right of the preview area opens the Pencil Properties dialog.

While the Tool Properties view only gives you access to a few of the pencil properties, a list of pencil presets and other drawing options, the Pencil Properties dialog gives you access to all the available options for your pencil's shape and texture. For more information on the Pencil Properties dialog, see the Pencil Properties Dialog section below.

Maximum Size

Defines the maximum width of the pencil line.

If the tool is used with a pressure sensitive pen tablet, the width of the stroke will vary between its maximum size and minimum size depending on the amount of pressure used. If used with a mouse, the width of the stroke will always be its maximum size.

Smoothing

Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.

Shape

You can adjust the start, end, and join style of a pencil line.

Start: Lets you select the style of the start tip, which is the first tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style.

End: Lets you select the style of the end tip, which is the last tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style.

Join: Lets you select the joint style. The joints are where the line curves abruptly. You could also define the Join style as the corner style. You can choose between Round, Mitre and Bevel style.

Pencil Presets

These options allow you to select, create and manage pencil presets.

Icon

Tool Name

Description

Presets list

Harmony provides a variety of pencil presets and thickness stencils and also lets you create and save your own. It is a good idea to create and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for efficiency and consistency.

A thickness stencil saves the thickness information across the length of the line. When drawing with a thickness stencil, the pressure sensitivity of the tablet is discarded. A thickness stencil can be used while drawing, or applied afterwards.

You also have the possibility to apply different textures to your lines by either using the default presets or importing your own—See About Pencil Line Textures..

You can export the pencil presets that you have created and import those that others have created. This is a good way for you and project collaborators to keep a consistent look for the project.

New Preset

Creates a new preset based on the current brush properties.

Delete Preset

Deletes the currently selected preset.

Presets Menu

Gives access to more options for managing presets.

Rename Brush

Deletes the currently selected preset.

Import Brushes

Allows you to import brush presets exported from Harmony.

Export Brushes

Allows you to export your brush presets into an .xml file.

Small Thumbnail

Displays presets in a grid of small thumbnails with a preview of their tip.

Large Thumbnail

Displays presets in a grid of big thumbnails, with their name and a preview of their tip.

Stroke View

Displays presets in a list, with their name and a preview of a stroke done with each preset. This is the default setting.

Drawing Options

These options affect the way your drawing strokes are integrated into your artwork.

Draw Behind

When enabled, your brush strokes will appear behind the existing artwork. Note that they will appear over your artwork while drawing your stroke, until you release the brush.

Auto Fill

When enabled, drawing a closed shape will automatically fill it with the currently selected Paint colour.

TIPBy default the pencil line and its fill will be the same colour. If you want to select different colours for the pencil line and its fill, you can click on the Unlock Three Colours button in the Colour view, then select different colours for Brush strokes , Pencil lines and Paint fills .

Trim Extra Lines

When enabled, drawing a closed shape will automatically remove the outstanding lines.

Align Handles After Trim

When the Trim Extra Lines option is enabled, enable this option to make the point where the beginning and end of the stroke meet into a smooth curve rather than a hard corner.

Automatically Create Colour Art

As you draw in the Line Art layer, the Automatically Create Colour Art option instantly creates the corresponding strokes in the Colour Art layer.

Auto-Flatten Mode

By default, when drawing on a vector layer, each new stroke is created as a separate drawing object, which can be edited independently from other parts of the artwork. When enabled, the Auto-Flatten option automatically merges strokes into existing artwork.

NOTE

Using the Select tool, you can use select and remove a segment of flattened pencil lines. Overlapping pencil lines drawn with the Auto-Flatten mode are essentially cut into segments by the overlap and can be treated as individual lines.

Auto-Close Gap

When using the pencil tool, you can automatically close strokes with an invisible stroke.

It is recommended to keep this option enabled when drawing with the Pencil tool.

Line Building Mode

The Line Building mode is very useful when drawing long lines and curves in small increments with pencil lines or the Line tool. As the pencil lines are central vector lines, it may be difficult to align the line tips perfectly to create a uniform stroke and close all gaps.

In this mode, you can draw lines in small increments and the tips are merge into one single stroke.

NOTE This mode only works with pencil lines or the line tool.

Auto Adjust Thickness

The Auto Adjust Thickness tool is useful when you want to render a portion of a line thicker. When tracing a drawing on paper, you will often go back to a section of a curve to make it thicker to add dynamism to the line. Using the Auto Adjust Thickness tool, you can draw highlight strokes over the section to make thicker. Once you release the pen or mouse, the line becomes thicker following the shape and curve of the original stroke. This way is much faster and smoother than using the Pencil Editor tool. You do not have to add extra points and adjust the position and Bezier handles.

The default overlay colour is light yellow. If this colour is difficult to see because of the background or drawing colour, you can adjust the colour.

Line Pushing Mode

The Line Pushing Mode option lets you draw highlight strokes over existing pencil lines. You can reshape the curves. Depending how you draw the pushing stroke over your line, the highlighted section will be reshaped in one direction or the other.

The default overlay colour is light yellow. If this colour is difficult to see because of the background or drawing colour, you can adjust the colour.

Colour

You can change the colour of the temporary strokes that appear in the drawing space when using the Line Pushing Mode or the Auto Adjust Thickness option by clicking on the Colour swatch and selecting a new colour in the Colour Picker dialog.

Pencil Properties Dialog

Pencils have extra parameters which are not accessible from the Tool Properties view. To open the Pencil Properties dialog, click on the arrow button right of the stroke display area.

Size and Smoothness Tab

The Size and Smoothness tab allows you to select your pencil's size, its smoothing parameters as well as the shape of its tips and corners.

Tool Name

Description

Maximum Size

Defines the maximum size of the pencil line. If the tool is used with a pressure sensitive pen tablet, the width of the stroke will vary between its maximum size and minimum size depending on the amount of pressure used. If used with a mouse, the width of the stroke will always be its maximum size.

Minimum Size

Defines the minimum size of your stroke as a percentage of the maximum size. If you do not have pressure sensitivity from a pen table, the minimum size value will be ignored.

Smoothing

Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.

Contour Smoothing

Defines the number of points on the contour share of your stroke. This will smooth out the bumps and waves on tour contour shape of your brush strokes.

Shape

You can adjust the start, end, and join style of a pencil line.

Start: Lets you select the style of the start tip, which is the first tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style.

End: Lets you select the style of the end tip, which is the last tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style.

Join: Lets you select the joint style. The joints are where the line curves abruptly. You could also define the Join style as the corner style. You can choose between Round, Mitre and Bevel style.

Texture Tab

In the Pencil Properties view, the Texture tab allows you to select a pencil texture from the currently selected pencil texture palette to use with the Pencil tool. You can also add, remove or rename textures, save the current pencil texture palette as the default one, or import the pencil texture palette into your scene.

The pencil texture palette used in the Texture tab of the Pencil Properties dialog is the one selected in the Colour view. You can select a pencil texture palette by selecting it from the pencil texture palette list in the Colour view—see Colour View.

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Tool Name

Description

Use as Default Pencil Texture Palette

Sets the currently selected pencil texture palette as the default pencil texture palette in your user preferences. The default pencil texture palette is added to every scene you create in Harmony. The palette is copied in your preferences, so it will be added to your new scenes in the exact state it is when you make it the default pencil texture palette.

Reload Default Texture Palette

Imports the default pencil texture palette as a new pencil texture palette into your scene's palette list, and selects it as the current pencil texture palette.

New Texture

Allows you to import an image file into a new pencil texture swatch in the current pencil texture palette. The pencil texture's effect on your pencil line will be based on the image's transparency channel, and will follow your pencil lines on its horizontal axis.

Delete Texture

Deletes a pencil texture swatch from the current pencil texture palette.

Rename Texture

Renames the selected pencil texture swatch in the current pencil texture palette.

Pencil Texture List

Displays the pencil textures in the current pencil texture palette and allows you to select one to use with the Pencil tool.

Pencil Texture Palette

Displays the name of the currently selectedpencil texture palette, for reference. To select a different pencil texture palette, you must select it in the Colour view—see Colour View.